Saturday, May 28, 2011

Former Assange Partner Writes Critical Tell-All Book

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange lost control of his site’s submission system in an internal revolt last fall, and has never regained it, according to a tell-all book penned by the organization’s top defector, who accuses Assange of routinely exaggerating the security of the secret-spilling website and lying to the public about the size and strength of the organization.

Although WikiLeaks has claimed for months that its submission system is down due to a backlog of documents it has no time to process, Daniel Domscheit-Berg writes in Inside WikiLeaks that he and a top WikiLeaks programmer seized the submission system when they defected from the organization last September, along with documents in the system at the time.

“This is the first time we’ve told anyone about this,” Domscheit-Berg writes.

Domscheit-Berg, who was known as Daniel Schmitt during his nearly three-year tenure with the organization, had a high-profile fallout last year with Assange, whom he once considered a best friend. He now says of Assange, “Sometimes I hate him so much that I’m afraid I’d resort to physical violence if our paths ever cross again.”

The most serious charge that Domscheit-Berg makes is that Assange doesn't give a damn about protecting people named in leaked documents.